Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur
The good times keep rolling in for Kuala Lumpur. Four Seasons, Alila Bangsar, Banyan Tree (from Sydney-based Studioaria), Sofitel Damansara (with interiors by Wilson Associates), and W (local Blu Water Studio helmed the project) all opened last year. Fairmont, Park Hyatt, and Jumeirah properties are slated to be completed by 2020. There is a palpable sense of optimism in the air, buoyed by significant foreign investment in the Malaysian capital by Chinese investment firm China Railway Construction Corporation and local developer KSK Land. “Kuala Lumpur is a thriving city, a recognized destination by many local and foreign investors in a lush country with an equally rich tourist market,” explains Singapore-based Susan Isaac, design director and principal at Wilson Associates. “Countries are no longer maps of faraway lands, but destinations within our reach. Within those destinations, we subconsciously look for the familiar touch that connects our heart to that land.”
Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur > Officially open in July, the 65-story purpose built skyscraper in the Golden Triangle district is linked to Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) and offers selfie-inducing views of the Petronas Towers. It is a four-tiered celebration of luxury: the Shoppes at Four Season Place on the podium level with the 209-room hotel, serviced apartments, and condominiums above. AB Concept led the design of the lounge, Bar Trigona, and Yun House restaurant with Wilson Associates spearheading the rest of the design. The firm cultivated “a personalized, tailored, and sophisticated look,” describes Isaac. Deep blue green hues nod to forests and oceans, while pomegranate pink marries shades of gray and bright sunset hues. Black, deep chocolate, and soft gold accents create an “understated luxury executed within balanced volumes, forms, textures, and tones that are reflective of the rich culture it was curated for,” she says.
Alila Bangsar > South of the Golden Triangle is the Brickfields district. Known as the city’s Little India, it’s here travelers can find the Alila Bangsar residing within six levels of a 41-story highrise that is connected to Bangsar LRT station. Featuring a rooftop lobby that leads to a stepped down swimming pool open to the sky, the 143 guestrooms also enjoy broad panoramas of the city. “From the very beginning, the idea of creating an urban oasis in a hectic city inside a tower was important for us,” states Lyndon Neri, founding partner at Shanghai firm Neri & Hu. “By creating a landscape pool in the middle of the top floor, we consciously made a point to express this concept, which can be experienced through our spatial manipulation.” The open-air space with public amenities surrounding the pool “allows guests and visitors to have a direct relationship with nature,” because “sky and water are two essential elements in bringing a sense of solitude.”
Alila Bangsar
